Monsanto announces high profits and major expansion across Latin America

Biotech titan Monsanto saw its shares surge by more than 2 percent on Wednesday morning after announcing better-than-expected first quarter earnings earlier that day.

The company said that
for the quarter ending November 30, 2013 it earned $368 million,
or 69 cents per share. One year earlier, the company earned only
$339 million during that period, the Associated Press
reported.

In all, the AP added, Monsanto’s total revenue rose 7 percent
last quarter to $3.1 billion. Analysts at FactSet had predicted
earnings of only 64 cents per share, or $3.069 billion in
revenue, for that span.

Now according to the company’s CEO, Monsanto expects further
growth in 2014.

"All of our indicators continue to line up to deliver mid- to
high-teens" growth in operating profit on a percentage basis
this year, chief executive Hugh Grant told reporters on a
conference call early Wednesday, the
Wall Street Journal reported.

Experts say further profits could easily be expected as Monsanto
continues to see growing sales of its Intacta soybean seed, the
first of its kind designed specifically by the company for sale
in non-domestic markets. Intacta seeds are genetically engineered
by Monsanto scientists to withstand the company’s popular
herbicide Roundup as well as infestations by caterpillars, and
the company said on Wednesday that soybean sales grew 16 percent
during the recently-closed quarter to $267 million.

Monsanto expects to have Intacta seeds covering about three
million acres of Brazil in 2014, and ultimately around 100
million acres of the crop between there and Argentina. Elsewhere
they may be out of luck, however, as authorities in Germany,
France and Italy have all proposed national bans on GMOs. More
than a dozen nations in the European Union require labels on
genetically modified products, and Zambia, Benin and Serbia have
all agreed on total
bans altogether against those items.

Nevertheless, Grant said in a statement published by Reuters on
Wednesday that "The first quarter demonstrated that our
business performance is squarely on track with several key
milestones and that we have the right growth strategy in
place.”

Grant isn’t alone at thinking his company is on the right track,
either. Piper Jaffray Cos analyst Michael Co told
Bloomberg News Wednesday morning that over the next two years
Intacta “will prove to be the single most important earnings
driver for Monsanto.”

Even China, where American exports were recently rejected over
fears of being tainted with GMO products, agreed last June to
approve Intacta soybeans. Monsanto President and Chief Commercial
Officer Brett Begemann said then that it marked “a
significant milestone” for the company and “showcases
the next wave of innovation that is poised to drive the decade of
the soybean at Monsanto.”

Meanwhile, though, other GMO products made by Monsanto slipped in
sales. Although genetically-engineered soybean seeds saw their
sales rise by 16 percent last quarter, corn and cotton both
declined during that time frame. That only proved to be a small
setback for profits, though, as the company’s glyphosate
herbicide sold 24 percent better than previously,

Pretty decent indeed, but not exactly with regards to reputation.
That same quarter saw dozens of countries around the globe hold
anti-GMO protests as part of a coordinated “March
Against Monsanto” in October at roughly 500 cities around the
globe. As RT reported previously, numerous studies conducted over
the past few years determined that an overwhelming
majority of Americans — close to 100 percent, in some cases —
are in favor of enacting laws that would require companies that
rely on GMO crops to appropriately label their products as such.